The Federal Government of Nigeria is planning to evacuate more than 1,000 Nigerians from South Africa as anti-immigrant tensions escalate in the country, against documented and undocumented African workers.
The move by Abuja comes after Ghana recently evacuated hundreds of its citizens from South Africa in response to waves of protests and violence targeting foreigners.
Subsequently, screening for Nigeria’s voluntary evacuation scheme started on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman, Kimiebi Ebienfa, told AFP on Friday.
Ebienfa said, “The total figure is not out yet. We are expecting over 1,000 people.”
In a communique dated Tuesday, Nigeria’s High Commission in Pretoria said it had “negotiated waivers with host authorities” so that those with “immigration-related offences” would be allowed to leave on the eventual evacuation flights rather than be detained.
South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised economy, has long attracted workers from across the region.
But saddled with an unemployment rate of over 30 per cent, it has seen repeated spurts of xenophobic protests, including renewed violence targeting other African nationals in recent weeks.
The latest tensions gave traction to uncomfortable debates across Africa about xenophobia, migration and the gap between pan-African rhetoric and realities facing migration on the continent.
Meanwhile, an ultimatum by one citizen-led group for expulsion of illegal migrants by June 30 has raised fears of violence after bouts of anti-immigrant unrest in the past that claimed dozens of lives.
The South African government has said it is stepping up enforcement against undocumented immigrants, but urged citizens not to take matters into their own hands.
More than three million nationals from other African countries – about 5.1 per cent of the Southern African nation population live in South Africa, a statistics agency revealed.
More than 63 per cent of that figure come from countries in the 16-member Southern African Development Community, SADC, bloc.
Source: PUNCH.
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